No permanent pay raises for assistant principals in state budget

Many assistant principals in the state will go without pay raises this year – even as the teachers and other school staff working in their schools do get raises.

The N.C. legislature responded to widespread discontent over North Carolina’s low teacher pay this year by including pay raises for teachers in their $21.1 billion budget. Republican legislative leaders have described the increase as an average raise of 7 percent. Others, including the N.C. Association of Educators, have chipped away at that number, pointing out that lawmakers folded in existing longevity bonuses to make their calculations.

The salary schedule for assistant principals shows that they seemed to have escaped lawmakers’ priorities this year, with salaries stagnant for professionals in their first 12 years of education work with only nominal raises not topping $200 in later years.

The salary schedule for assistant principals gradually ticks up in the 13th year, with the base salary going up by $28 for the entire year, according to the comparisons between for 2013-14 and 2014-15 public education salaries posted by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. (Scroll down to see salary schedules.)

It doesn’t mean that the assistant principals will go completely without, however.

A onetime $809 bonus from non-recurring funds will go to the assistant principals who don’t otherwise get raises this year, said Vanessa Jeter, a DPI spokeswoman. Or if the teacher salary for the corresponding year of service is higher than the assistant principal pay, the assistant principal would get the higher pay, she said.

Other educational staff — including teachers assistants, janitors, bus drivers and other non-certified school staff — got a $500 raise, or $41.67 a month based on a 12-month schedule, in this year’s state budget, according to a Frequently Asked Questions sheet posted by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction yesterday.

The fact sheet also says that teachers paid out of federal or local funds, and not state funds, won’t necessarily get the pay raises that their colleagues who are paid out of state funds receive.

(Some school districts tap federal and local funding streams to lower classroom size, increase resources in high-poverty schools or provide special programs that go above and beyond what the state mandates and funds.)

Teachers in positions paid out of federal funds will get a $1,000 pay increase through the state budget, while local education agencies will have to come up with the money for teachers paid out of local funds.

Individual school districts will figure out how to handle those pay differentials, and whether or not they’ll use more local money to bridge the gap in pay for those teachers.

Want to know more about what else was tucked away in the budget? Read this and this to learn about some of the lesser-known details in the $21.1 billion budget.